Cards Against Humanity - Sinful?

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Hi,

I´ve been playing cards against humanity with my friends on a few occasions. However, some people have told me that it´s sinful while others say it´s not. So, my question is whether it is harmless humor or actually sinful? I haven´t really been able to sort this out which have caused me to play it, tho with a bad gut feeling. So I´d really wanna sort this out. What are your thoughts about this and why?

God bless,
 
I haven’t personally played it but I watched a couple videos of people playing it on a comedy channel on YouTube. It seems like harmless, goofy fun.
 
I’ve heard one say that by playing the game I lead other people to unchastity with their thoughts and words. While someone else told me that because I use my mouth to pray and worship God, then saying things like in CAH is of less good and thus inappropriate. Is there any reason to believe this to be the right way of approaching it?
 
I think it depends on how you play it, and what is an occasion of sin for you. It can get pretty raunchy, or be pretty harmless. Personally, I don’t play it, because I’m not comfortable with some of the humor, but I see nothing wrong with someone else playing it. It’s really a gray area, and you just have to be honest with yourself about how it impacts you.
 
I have never heard of this. What are cards against humanity? Is it a form of gambling where one bets the life of another on the outcome of a card game? If so, it would be an absolute no-no, even if only played in fun. The lives of others should never be just a game.
 
i think it is because it makes light of sin, making it seem less serious than it actually is. so a sin like suicide becomes laughable. ALSO

Foul language
 
It’s probably just harmless fun. I think it would only be bad if the more raunchy cards tempted you to lustful or equally raunchy thoughts, although I don’t think they do inherently.

I’ve played the game before and found it do be incredibly dull.
 
It’s sort of like the game ‘apples to apples’ but the cards are decidedly more adult in theme.
 
Kima,

If you have any doubts about the game, I’d suggest leaving it alone.
 
Thank you for your thoughts and insights on this topic. I will certainly take them into account.
 
I personally think it’s a repulsive game. Apples to Apples has the propensity to raunchiness. Cards Against Humanity requires its players to make statements that are vile, cruel, racist, and hateful. It’s the kind of thing a 12yo would find funny. Whether or not it rises to the level of a sin probably depends on how you play it and who you are playing it with, but I don’t see the point in testing it out.
 
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I think I found myself in that game once, and honestly…

I think it may actually be problematic.

That is, I don’t think you’d necessarily be mortally sinning, by playing it (unless you’re really convicted about it in your conscience). But if you really stop and think about what the game encourages you (and others) to do, the game seems structured to provoke people to make jokes that are as offensive or sexually provocative as possible… And to me, that just seems like putting ourselves in a near occasion to sin. Especially, wearing down our habit of making sure that everything that comes out of our mouth is charitable and chosen by the will to be edifying for others and build up others. Getting in the habit of saying rude or risqué things, for the brief (but tantalizing) thrill of making others laugh, seems like a straight-up trap to me. Also, the potential to scandalize others who observe us (especially with cards being racially charged, referencing sexual assault, etc).

(It’s like… If someone walked up to you with a video camera and asked you out of the blue to say one of the sentences CAH asks you to say, you’d probably say: “Uh, no thanks!” But when it gets framed in the context of “Chill out man, we’re just playing a game here; don’t you have a sense of humour?” we’re suddenly willing to say completely wretched things. And that’s where I think this is more of a trap masquerading as a game, than a game that happens to be a trap.)

I guess it’s technically possible that a group could set their own rules, and try to forbid card-combinations that are obviously rude or risqué… but since the entire game is structured to tempt you to put such cards together, I just don’t see the good in it.

There are much better games out there that can be played instead! For example, if you and your friends love games with involve connecting word cards – it’s a little different, but have you tried ‘Code Names’? That’s a massive people pleaser. I have tons of friends (and family, and neighbours) who love that one, from the first time playing.
 
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Absolutely. The person who told you the second thing, especially, is spot on.

James 3:1-12
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness. For we all make many mistakes, and if any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Look at the ships also; though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!

And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh water and brackish? Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
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We are supposed to bridle our tongues. If we mix fresh water with brackish water, the whole thing becomes brackish. If we mix salt water with fresh water, the whole thing becomes salt water. Let only what is edifying for others, what builds up others further towards holiness, come out of your mouth.

This doesn’t mean you have to be stuffy! We can have fun, and humour is great!!! I believe God has a fantastic sense of humour. It’s just a matter of pursuing humour and joy that is untainted by the wickedness that the enemy tries to bring into it. Let all the water be fresh; let no brackish water through.

EDIT: PS one final thought (though maybe each person’s answer depends on where the conscience formation is at; I dunno): maybe beyond even the question of sin, I might suggest imagining someone older and holy who you truly trust and look up to: maybe a famous priest you know about, or even a grandfather. Someone you respect. Now imagine you observed them playing this game. Maybe guffawing at the smut or at the immature language or at a rape joke. Wouldn’t you feel… disappointed?

Now don’t be the kind of person who would disappoint you.
 
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I don’t know if they’ve further sanitized it, but the version I played several years ago was morally reprehensible. If I was pope, I’d put it on the list of forbidden games along with the Ouija Board.
 
That’s another great point: All the classic card games, like hearts. There are also great dice games.

With all these new games, as much as there’s an occasional one that comes out that truly delights and is clever and different enough to keep on the shelf and play with guests – for the most part, I find the old classics are the ones my own family goes back and back to, and they’re reliably entertaining. You end up still laughing plenty, because everyone plays differently and you end up with schemers, saboteurs, big riskers, playing-it-safers…

My opinion, a good crowd can have fun with anything. And even a crowd who might think they have to rely on something degenerate (as if, if it’s not raunchy or taboo, it’s not fun)… seem to still have the time of their lives when you include them in good clean classics.

The other stuff just isn’t necessary. And is often actually kinda tedious (because dragging the humour out of debased things is a shallow well; whereas humour from good things goes deep).
 
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